Damaged intestine: How alleged death of doctor stalled police investigation

Aondovihi Isaac and his wife, Victoria, may have to wait a little longer in search of justice over the surgery that damaged Victoria’s intestines while in search of a child. This is because the alleged sudden death of the doctor that carried out the surgery, Dr. Aqson Warigon, has stalled police investigation into the case. […]

Aondovihi Isaac and his wife, Victoria, may have to wait a little longer in search of justice over the surgery that damaged Victoria’s intestines while in search of a child.

This is because the alleged sudden death of the doctor that carried out the surgery, Dr. Aqson Warigon, has stalled police investigation into the case.

When our reporter earlier contacted the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Sergeant Akinola Kayode, he  said he was also told that Dr. Warigon had died, adding that he told the person to come to the Area Command and take him to the mortuary where the corpse was deposited. 

“We have to see and confirm if that is the true story,” he said.

Asked if the death would affect the investigation, he said “I can’t conclude now.”

During a followed-up call put across to the IPO, he said over a week after he contacted the family of the doctor to come and take him to the mortuary to confirm the veracity of the death story, no one honoured the request. 

“They eventually told me they have taken the corpse to his home town in Adamawa State and they has since buried him. And the complainant’s lawyer told me he saw the obituary of the doctor on the wall of Maitama hospital,” he said.

He said not satisfied with the response, he approached the mortuary of the National Hospital, Abuja where they had told him they deposited the corpse.

“From the register of the mortuary, we saw that there was an entry showing that the corpse was deposited at the mortuary on November 1st, and it was released to them on the 8th. He said he wrote to the Medical Director of the hospital to get the official statement of the hospital on whether the corpse was actually deposited there as claimed, and he is waiting for the response.

“If we confirm that he is actually dead, we will now call the complainants and the man’s family maybe they can sit at a roundtable. You know we can’t make a case with a dead man, but we have to be sure that he is actually dead. We believe the medical director cannot give us a misleading response,” he added.

However, a lawyer representing the couple, Barrister Hameed Jimoh, said he was not in agreement with some practices in the investigation of the matter.

 “So, I have just petitioned the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), the FCT Commissioner of Police and the Inspector General of Police. 

“I met with the spokesman of FCT Command on Thursday and he took the case directly to the Commissioner of Police. He came out to inform me that the CP assured that the matter would be treated on merit. Immediately, he called the IPO in charge of the case at Maitama police station and ordered him to report to the command headquarters,” he said.

In the petition addressed to the ICPC chairman, the lawyer alleged that “we suspect that her (Victoria’s) organs not found could have been sold, harvested and transplanted, etc. Yet, the conducts of some of the identified personalities are the challenges still triumphing over the cause of justice.”

Barrister Jimoh told our reporter that “As far as we are concerned, the suspect is still alive perhaps at large by the conniving efforts of some persons, as there is no substantial evidence proving his death yet. And where they exist at all, they are not admissible in evidence. Moreover, the issue has taken another face as there is a complaint of corruption against some persons that we have lodged with ICPC and we won’t spare anyone found culpable.”

Daily Trust reports that the couple approached the doctor for medical assistance on Victoria’s inability to conceive after five years of marriage and the doctor operated on her to remove an ovarian cyst at the left side which a scan had discovered.

However, post-surgery complications took the couples to Maitama District Hospital where it was observed on examination that, “Multiple fibrinous adhesions involving loops of small bowel and uterus was visualized but both ovarian and fallopian tubes not seen,” according to a medical report from the hospital signed by its Senior Consultant General Surgeon, Dr. K. Osisanya.